Next Gig: 6th of October - 'Echoes of Aberration' EP Launch at Happy Yess w/ Tapestry, March of Days and Fat Pigeon Band

“A taste of all our sins,Translucent as a man of lately - Let me be

Let me come to die” - Echoes

Hailing from Australia’s upper North Territory, Darwin, Metalcore ensemble Summit showcase their own blistering brand of fury with the release of their debut EP - "Echoes of Aberration", a five-track epic chocked full of sonic intensity, atmosphere and emotion.

The EP kicks off with the energetic ‘Cut You Open’, a track built upon crushing riffage, endearing harmonies and an engaging, almost ‘call and response’ vocal performance presented by front man Matt Greeneaway. What becomes immediately apparent is that song structure is on-point and each song maintains flow excellently, balancing moments of striking brutality with contrasting moments of tamed poignancy. It personifies a certain sense of conflict and achieves this spectacularly, setting the tone of what listeners should come to expect of this release from start through finish!

Following this up is ‘Echoes’, the EP’s initial single and its finest moment, at least in my opinion. Right off the bat, you’re met with this monumentally insane groove that just slaps you in the face and alongside Greenaway’s tumultuous roaring, brings you into a temptation for absolute headbanging frenzy. The riffing here is crushing and straightforward yet creative and captivating, seamlessly shifting its focus and serving the song as it flows through sections of both heaviness and serenity. One of my favourite parts of this EP is the sudden change in pace that occurs at the 2-minute mark of this track as atmospheric arpeggios ring out over deep lyrics that mirror a lowly persona. It sounds huge and it could probably put someone in a trance. The song progressively builds itself back up and eventually, in all its neck-breaking glory, transitions back into pure heaviness in a way that, to an extent, reminds me of early Slipknot but combined with the elements of Metalcore that make this EP so great!

Throughout its 22-minute duration, Greenaway keeps his vocal performance engaging and varied, regularly shifting between fierce screams, gentle cleans and even raspy melodic phrases that sound like a badass amalgam of Matt Heafy and Jonathan Davis. However, I can’t help but feel that from time to time, Greenaway’s melodic rasp tends to lose its focus a little and sometimes his vocals can fall below in the mix, particularly in subtler moments such as the melodically focused ‘Abyss’ and the EP’s second single ’Patient Zero’. Whilst this is something I can definitely look past; I cannot deny that if they were brought to the forefront a tad, Greenaway’s hypnotic cleans would only serve to expand the sound tremendously, especially when the rest of the mix is already unfuckwithable!

Closing the EP is the hugely heavy and anthemic ’Seppuku’, a track that gives the listener one last taste of Summit’s own blend of melodically focused hooks and gut-wrenching heaviness! Whilst it starts off on a much softer note than any of the tracks prior, once it gets heavy, it gets HEAVY! When the chorus kicks in, it feels almost as though the guitars epitomize the feeling of a downward spiral, all while we get some of what I think is Greeneaway’s most aggressive work throughout this release’s duration! In addition, guitar tapping and clean and raspy vocal phrases assist in bringing this track to life and it does so with finesse, easily another high point and the perfect way to close ‘Echoes of Aberration’!

To sum things up, "Echoes of Aberration" showcases something dynamic, authentic and awesome. As a Metalcore release, it manages to avoid unoriginality whilst maintaining a sound that would easily appeal to the modern heavy scene! Whilst a few minute mixing issues hold the vocals back a bit, the song writing on display here is killer, and it lays a solid foundation for whatever comes next for Darwin Metalcore act Summit!